John Barnes said today he is retiring as head coach of the Los Alamitos team.

Barnes, 67, has coached at Los Alamitos since the 1979 season. He is Orange County’s all-time wins leader with 321. (Bob Johnson of Mission Viejo is second at 310).

Barnes coached Los Alamitos to four CIF-Southern Section championships and a county-record 18 league championships.

His teams were known for developing great quarterbacks, among them CIF-SS players of the year Tim Carey, Mike Good, Jeff Kline and the coach’s oldest son, Jimmy. Barnes’ other son, Brian, was an All-County lineman and head coach at Estancia and Tesoro.

“I’ve truly been blessed,” Barnes said today. “I have an unbelievably supportive wife and family. I got to coach my sons. How wonderful is that?”

He and Anita Barnes have been married 45 years.

Barnes summed up his career simply.

“When I got hired here my only goal was to not get fired,” he said. “Today, I reached my goal.”

Barnes was elected to the California Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2012.

His teams at Los Alamitos won CIF-SS titles at three levels – Division I (2002), Division II (1992, ’93) and Division III (1991).

Earlier this week, longtime Edison coach Dave White said he will retire after the 2016 season.

Steve Fryer covers high school sports at the Orange County Register. He writes a weekly column on the county high school sports scene and also covers games and writes features. Steve also writes a weekly column that covers pro and college sports, and other topics. Steve does concert reviews for the Register, too, when time permits. Steve's first byline appeared in the Register in 1979. He was in the inaugural class inducted into the Santa Ana Unified School District Sports Hall of Fame. Steve also is in the Southern California Interscholastic Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame, and was the first journalist to receive the Contribution to Education award from the Orange County Department of Education. Steve was honored as Champion for Character by the CIF-Southern Section.

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